796 Kristi Lord: Co-Founder of L’AVANT Collective

0:00Kara Goldin:I am unwilling to give up, but I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be. You just want to make sure you will get knocked down, but just make sure you don't get knocked out. So your only choice should be, go focus on what you can control. Hi everyone and welcome to the Kara Goldin show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world's greatest leaders. We'll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and really some of the most interesting people of our time. Can't wait to get started. Let's go. Okay, quick question. Have you ever wished you could build something just by thinking it through?

0:48Kara Goldin:Well, Wix may have cracked the code. Wix's new Harmony editor makes creating a website feel incredibly natural. Almost like you're just thinking out loud. You type in a prompt and in minutes, you've got a professional looking site up and running. And here's what really sets it apart and why I love it. You can move seamlessly between AI-powered creation and hands-on editing whenever you want. That means you get the speed of AI without giving up control. Your site actually ends up looking the way you imagined it. Let me say that again. You choose how you build, fast when you want it, detailed when you need it.

1:37Kara Goldin:I've personally used Wix. I love it. And this new Harmony experience takes it to a whole new level. You even get your own personal AI agent named Aria to help you build your site and manage your business along the way. Check out what everyone's calling the new way to create websites. Try Wix Harmony for free at Wix.com slash Harmony. That's Wix.com slash Harmony. Support for today's episode comes from Square, the platform powering so many of the small businesses I love. Think about an ordinary day, grabbing your morning coffee, picking up a last minute gift, or browsing the farmer's market. Those fast, effortless checkouts you hardly notice.

2:27Kara Goldin:That's Square, working behind the scenes to power the businesses you rely on every day. It's not just a payment swipe or tap. It's one connected system that helps business owners take payments, manage inventory, run payroll, send invoices, and track everything in one place. Hardware that works in person and on the go. Software to manage staff and customers and even banking tools like square checking so sellers can get paid faster. One of my go-to spots here in the Bay Area is Equator Coffee. They use Square, and you can feel the difference as a customer. Checkout is fast, receipts land right in your inbox, and sometimes I even earn loyalty points.

3:13Kara Goldin:Businesses that use Square just feel more put together, and I love that. And the best part? Square grows with you, whether you're running a one-person pop-up or expanding to multiple locations. It scales alongside your ambition. No contracts, no hidden fees, no complicated setup, just tools designed for how people actually run their businesses. If you're starting a business or running one that deserves better tools, Square helps you sell, manage, and grow without slowing down. Right now, you can get up to$200 off Square hardware at square.com slash go slash Cara Golden. That's S-Q-U-A-R-E dot com slash G-O slash Cara Golden.

4:00Kara Goldin:Run your business smarter with Square. Go check it out and let Square help you do what you do best. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the Cara Golden Show. Today, I'm super excited to be joined by co-founder Christy Lord, who is the co-founder of Levant Collective. And if you have not heard about this brand, or maybe you have heard about it, maybe you've seen it on Goop or in Nordstrom's or online and Instagram as you're flying through social, it's such an incredible group of products, but company. And I'm so excited to be talking to one of the co-founders today, the plant-based design forward home care brand, redefining how we think about cleaning scent and everyday rituals.

4:53Kara Goldin:Chrissy's path to entrepreneurship didn't start in consumer goods. She spent two decades in finance and accounting and operations and decided to make her way into entrepreneurship with her co-founder when they were both trying to answer the question, why are the products we use every day either toxic, ugly, or both? So with Levant Collective, Christy and her co-founder Lindsay set out to build something different. And I'm so happy that they have absolutely terrific, terrific products, as I mentioned, but I cannot wait to hear a lot more about the founding journey and exactly more about the brand.

5:39Kara Goldin:So Christy, welcome to the Kara Golden Show. Well, that was such a beautiful entrance. Thank you so much. Okay, quick question. Have you ever wished you could build something just by thinking it through? Well, Wix may have cracked the code. Wix's new Harmony editor makes creating a website feel incredibly natural, almost like you're just thinking out loud. You type in a prompt and in minutes, you've got a professional looking site up and running. And here's what really sets it apart and why I love it. You can move seamlessly between AI powered creation and hands-on editing whenever you want. That means you get the speed of AI without giving up control.

6:30Kara Goldin:Your site actually ends up looking the way you imagined it. Let me say that again. You choose how you build, fast when you want it, detailed when you need it. I've personally used Wix. I love it. And this new Harmony experience takes it to a whole new level. You even get your own personal AI agent named Aria to help you build your site and manage your business along the way. Check out what everyone's calling the new way to create websites. Try Wix Harmony for free at wix.com slash harmony. That's wix.com slash harmony. This episode of the Kara Golden Show is brought to you by Rula, affordable in-network online therapy designed to fit your real life.

7:22Kara Goldin:We all could use a little therapy at some point, whether it's after a tough breakup, during a period of burnout, or when stress and anxiety quietly start piling up. There are moments when support isn't just helpful, it's necessary. I've been there and when I finally decided to look for a therapist, at best I ran into a frustrating reality. Finding someone who actually took insurance felt nearly impossible. That's always felt backwards. You can use insurance for physical health without hesitation, so why shouldn't it also cover mental health? Affordable, accessible care shouldn't be out of reach.

8:02Kara Goldin:But for so many people, it still is. That's exactly what RULA is changing. RULA works with most major insurance plans to make real licensed therapy more accessible, often bringing the average session cost down to around$15 and sometimes even zero depending on your benefits. This is legitimate mental health care using coverage you already have. What really stands out is how intentional the matching process is. RULA takes your goals, preferences, and background into account so you're connected with a therapist who actually feels like the right fit, not just the next available option. Many therapists even have openings as soon as the next day, which makes starting feel doable instead of overwhelming.

8:52Kara Goldin:If taking care of your mental health is part of your plan this year, RULA makes it easier to begin and easier to stick with. Real support covered by insurance when you need it most. Thousands of people are already using Rula to get affordable, high-quality therapy that's actually covered by insurance. Visit Rula.com slash Kara Golden to get started. After you sign up, you'll be asked how you heard about them. Please support our show and let them know we sent you. That's R-U-L-A.com slash Kara Golden. You deserve mental health care that works with you, not against your budget. Absolutely. Well, thank you.

9:35Kara Goldin:But for listeners who are just discovering Levant Collective, so what is the brand and what problem did you see that existed that you really wanted to solve? Yeah. So Levant Collective is all about high-performance home care. So everything that you need to take care of your home, designed in beautiful packaging and with yummy, luxurious fragrances. So the problem really was we were home with our young children, taking care of our home, starting our families, and the products that we were using didn't make us feel good to use. They stung our eyes. They stripped our hands of moisture and were caring for our homes.

10:16And we're like, why? I don't want this around my children. My doctor actually told me not to use these cleaning products while I was pregnant. So what's happening here in the cleaning aisle? You look at the beauty aisle and it's come so far. And then you look at cleaning and nothing has really changed. So we set out to create these products. We wanted them to work. We wanted them to be safe, but we wanted them to be beautiful and really fit into today's aesthetic. And what happened was we created this brand that makes you feel good to care for your home.

10:48Kara Goldin:Yeah, definitely. Now, what was the first product that you thought, I need to start with this? And how many others did you, what was the pattern, I guess, of what happened? Yeah, so we knew we wanted to launch with, so surface cleaner. Surface cleaner is like a heavy header in the cleaning industry. Surface cleaner and laundry are your two biggest part of the cleaning industry. But kind of that every day I'm using this, I'm wiping my counters down multiple times a day. So what is the profit we want to get in people's hands? So the surface cleaner was top for that. And so we launched with that.

11:24But then hand soap, as you kind of think about what you have on your sink that's already beautiful, hand soap has kind of already paved the way for that. And so we wanted to make sure that we had a hand soap that went along with that and so dish soap and at that time we had launched what was clean called cleaning wipes and we currently don't have those but those were the four products that we launched with okay quick question have you ever wished you could build

11:48Kara Goldin:something just by thinking it through well wix may have cracked the code wix's new harmony editor makes creating a website feel incredibly natural almost like you're just thinking out loud you You type in a prompt and in minutes, you've got a professional looking site up and running. And here's what really sets it apart and why I love it. You can move seamlessly between AI powered creation and hands-on editing whenever you want. That means you get the speed of AI without giving up control. Your site actually ends up looking the way you imagined it. Let me say that again. You choose how you build, fast when you want it, detailed when you need it.

12:40Kara Goldin:I've personally used Wix. I love it. And this new Harmony experience takes it to a whole new level. You even get your own personal AI agent named Aria to help you build your site and manage your business along the way. Check out what everyone's calling the new way to create websites. Try Wix Harmony for free at wix.com slash harmony. That's wix.com slash harmony. Support for today's episode comes from Square, the platform powering so many of the small businesses I love. Think about an ordinary day, grabbing your morning coffee, picking up a last minute gift, or browsing the farmer's market. Those fast, effortless checkouts you hardly notice.

13:31Kara Goldin:That's Square, working behind the scenes to power the businesses you rely on every day. It's not just a payment swipe or tap. It's one connected system that helps business owners take payments, manage inventory, run payroll, send invoices, and track everything in one place. hardware that works in person and on the go software to manage staff and customers and even banking tools like square checking so sellers can get paid faster one of my go-to spots here in the bay area is equator coffee they use square and you can feel the difference as a customer checkout is fast receipts land right in your inbox and sometimes i even earn loyalty points businesses that use Square just feel more put together.

14:20Kara Goldin:And I love that. And the best part, Square grows with you, whether you're running a one person pop up or expanding to multiple locations, it scales alongside your ambition. No contracts, no hidden fees, no complicated setup, just tools designed for how people actually run their businesses. If you're starting a business or running one that deserves better tools, Square helps you sell, manage, and grow without slowing down. Right now, you can get up to$200 off Square hardware at square.com slash go slash Kara Golden. That's S-Q-U-A-R-E dot com slash G-O slash Kara Golden. Run your business smarter with Square.

15:07Kara Goldin:Go check it out and let Square help you do what you do best. And you originally looked at this as a direct-to-consumer brand. So what was kind of the first step that you made to actually go and make that happen? Yeah. So ultimately, my business partner is Lindsay Droz and her and I came up with this concept and idea. And neither of us have a background in consumer products. So it did take us about three years to figure out what we were doing. And we knew we were not going to come to market unless the product actually worked. So nailing that formulation took about two years, and then COVID hit.

15:51So we launched when we, when the product landed on our doorstep, which was December 2020. And at that time, if you think about the three years prior to that, that's 2017 to 2020, so many consumer brands were so successful on direct-to-consumer. So it really wasn't even, we weren't even thinking wholesale at that time. And so we, you know, Shopify has made this so possible for anybody to kind of start a website, get your product out there. And so we put everything online. We have an incredible community in Seattle that just absolutely came out when we launched in December of 2020. It's also the gifting season.

16:32So we had a wonderful launch in December and into January. But then what happened in early 2021 was Apple changed their iOS for privacy. And the whole CPG that was flying to the moon on direct-to-consumer kind of stopped. And so we never had any money to really advertise. So from the beginning, we were kind of, this is going to be an organic growth. But because of that pivot that Apple put in place for us very early on, we knew that we needed to kind of look at this from an omni-channel perspective and make sure that from a distribution that we were looking at all angles, which included wholesale, you know, selling it directly into retail, Amazon, pop-ups, influencers, you know, it kind of takes a little bit of everything.

17:31Okay, quick question.

17:32Kara Goldin:Have you ever wished you could build something just by thinking it through? Well, Wix may have cracked the code. Wix's new Harmony editor makes creating a website feel incredibly natural, almost like you're just thinking out loud. You type in a prompt and in minutes, you've got a professional looking site up and running. And here's what really sets it apart and why I love it. You can move seamlessly between AI powered creation and hands-on editing whenever you want. That means you get the speed of AI without giving up control. Your site actually ends up looking the way you imagined it. Let me say that again.

18:20Kara Goldin:You choose how you build fast when you want it, detailed when you need it. I've personally used Wix. I love it. And this new Harmony experience takes it to a whole new level. You even get your own personal AI agent named Aria to help you build your site and manage your business along the way. Check out what everyone's calling the new way to create websites. Try Wix Harmony for free at wix.com slash harmony. That's wix.com slash harmony. Support for today's episode comes from Square, the platform powering so many of the small businesses I love. Think about an ordinary day, grabbing your morning coffee, picking up a last minute gift, or browsing the farmer's market.

19:13Kara Goldin:Those fast, effortless checkouts you hardly notice. That's Square, working behind the scenes to power the businesses you rely on every day. It's not just a payment swipe or tap. It's one connected system that helps business owners take payments, manage inventory, run payroll, send invoices, and track everything in one place. Hardware that works in person and on the go. software to manage staff and customers, and even banking tools like Square checking so sellers can get paid faster. One of my go-to spots here in the Bay Area is Equator Coffee. They use Square and you can feel the difference as a customer.

19:56Kara Goldin:Checkout is fast, receipts land right in your inbox, and sometimes I even earn loyalty points. Businesses that use Square just feel more put together. And I love that. And the best part, Square grows with you, whether you're running a one person pop up or expanding to multiple locations, it scales alongside your ambition. No contracts, no hidden fees, no complicated setup, just tools designed for how people actually run their businesses. If you're starting a business or running one that deserves better tools, Square helps you sell, manage, and grow without slowing down. Right now, you can get up to$200 off Square hardware at square.com slash go slash Kara Golden.

20:43Kara Goldin:That's s-q-u-a-r-e.com slash g-o slash Kara Golden. Run your business smarter with Square. Go check it out and let Square help you do what you do best. Yeah, definitely. When you first launched and I guess with your Shopify, with your first Shopify store, what was the, do you remember the first maybe sale that you got and kind of what was that moment like when you're finally, you know, you've been sitting with this product for, I guess, three years trying to figure out how to actually create it and bring it to market and working, I'm sure, with creative to actually figure out the packaging, what's goes into the product, all those things.

21:37Kara Goldin:And then finally you get this sale. What was that moment like? And I guess what was the most surprising as well about that moment? that's a great question um but yes it feels like childbirth and the sense that you just have so much wonder you know the firstborn like what is this going to be like and so when you get those first sales and that shopify has that ding and they start to go off you're like oh my gosh so lindsey and i had champagne and we were popping it but then we're like oh my now we have to go pack all these orders. And because we did everything, we did everything packed and shipped and answered emails and were the IT behind the website.

22:23So we were doing absolutely everything. But it was so much fun. We had family and friends and husbands come out to like unload inventory, pack those boxes. Because it was December, it was a holiday season. The orders were big. And And so it was, I think that was surprising. People were buying more than just one product. We had people calling us wanting from a corporate gifting perspective, clients, you know, so they're ordering like 20, 30, 40 bundles at a time. And so that opened our eyes like, oh, like this could be a corporate gifting play. You know, so those are like surprising things that you find out as you, as you launch your business.

23:02But pretty much every single moment was surprising and exciting and exhilarating all at once. And exhausting.

23:13Kara Goldin:Yeah, and exhausting. Your packaging is so beautiful. Was that the original packaging that you launched with or has much changed since you launched? Yeah, those are original designs. Everything is custom. We love to make everything very hard. and but but equal tenants are that these products actually work they're actually beautiful and they smell amazing so each one of those tenants took a very long time to work through so packaging was uh several years of iterations um we worked with a consultant we hired this young gal at the time she designed this these beautiful bottles for us that we still use today she's now she's now so popular that we can't even get in, you know, to see her anymore.

24:06And we highly recommend her. But the packaging was so important for us because if you're going to spend a little bit more on a cleaning product, we think we want to drive you in with that beautiful packaging. You're going to keep this on your counter. It's got to be gorgeous.

24:22Kara Goldin:Did you ever have a moment, you and or your co-founder, Lindsay, where you thought but this would be so much easier if we had experience, right? But the two of you are willing to jump in. And I always say like experience, you do have experience in professional and business experience. You just didn't have experience in this vertical, right? And I was the same way. I was in tech prior to going into consumer products, But I kept thinking someone else could probably do this better and it would be easier for them if they did. But then they probably wouldn't have seen a lot of holes that you were seeing, right?

25:06Kara Goldin:They would have done things exactly the same way because that had always worked before. Were there any examples where you really thought like you're doing things a little differently? It's not normal. Maybe a co-packer that you're using or manufacturer that you're using was like, oh, it's just not done that way. But you're like, let's try it. yeah i mean i would think that nothing that lindsey and i have done is follows probably a normal path that's what's so fun about it but i do think that you know for anybody out there that is thinking about starting a business you don't have to have all the answers it you have to like really get comfortable and sit back in your heels of your own experience and we did this when we turned 40.

25:55And by that time, our networks were massive. Somebody has the answer. You just have to be able to know who to pick up the phone and call and then they call somebody for you. And so there's really power in your community and in your network that we didn't realize until you're like really in it, that like there's so many people out there that can help solve your problems. As long as, and what's so great about starting a business is if you have passion behind it, that's what's going to drive you forward every day to solve the problems and figure things out. So I think, you know, as from an entrepreneur, we knew what we were trying to solve because we were passionate about this.

26:36We were like, this is what's missing from the market, from my soul. I'm here every day home cleaning with my kids and I'm like, I want to feel good about this. And so what's on the market right now is not solving that problem. It's hard to like communicate and bottle up a feeling, but so many products have done that. And so we knew we could do it. As far as manufacturing, you know, thinking through like who bottled our products for us? We were going to go with anybody that said yes. You know, we called, a lot of people said no. Again, this is during COVID, right? So you're like, I'm going to launch a cleaning product during COVID.

27:15A lot of people don't want to pick up the phone because they're mass producing chlorophyll. Right. So our very first manufacturer was actually a shampoo manufacturer. It's still kind of a lot of the same ingredients and shampoo as what our products are made of because they're skincare grade, you know, high quality ingredients. So we were their very first cleaning product on their line and it worked beautifully.

27:42Kara Goldin:So, so interesting. What were some of the ingredients that were that you refused? that were kind of the, I guess, the points of your brand that you just would not give in on. That might have been easier for those co-packers or producers to deal with you, but you're just like, we just can't do that. Yeah, so from the start, our very first hire was a consultant, and she came from, she's a trained green chemist. so we relied on her and she was the one that formulated for us she came from the leading non-toxic cleaning line at the time and they had been sold and so she was off grid she had a she had a lab in her basement and we found her on LinkedIn and my business partner loves to dig and dig and dig and become obsessed and so she flew out to her home and pitched her our idea and she was like, the world needs this.